One of the charms of the acrobatic little chestnut-backed chickadees is that they like to put their feet together and stab at a seed (which I often can’t see) held between them. Fearless little things, marvels the klutz watching them risking hammer toes from the other side of the window.

Not sure how I missed seeing it before, probably because they don’t have to with hulled sunflowers, but, scrub jays do it, too. I think there are some olives left in that tree. So it was that I got to watch a jay standing on a long 2×2″ that runs along in front of it over at that part of the yard, the bird’s long talons wrapped around the board as that big beak tore away at its prize.

Only–the 2×2 wasn’t completely steady. It moved, the jay lurched, it did a wheelbarrel roll onto its blue head and then its side and scrambled up fast and grabbed its meal to make sure no thieving squirrel had taken off with it. And then stole a peek at me: you didn’t see that.

I’m sure you know — watching animals, especially small ones. Pepper goes into her food cup, grabs one small piece, comes out to the ‘porch’, and holds her bit of food in her left claw while nibbling at it. Always the left.

I broke down and got a “cat game” for my I-Pad for Lara GirlCat. She absolutely loves it. It’s a little mouse that runs over the screen. She sits on the screen and tries to grab the mousie while purring a mile a minute (PPM, maybe? Purrs per minute?) However when the mouse runs off the screen she tried to bury under the I-Pad to see where the mouse went. The I-Pad flipped over and suddenly she had to clean the base of her tail because, surely I didn’t see her do that, did I?

Yesterday I was slowly working on eating a bar of dark chocolate while sitting on the couch. Every once in awhile I’d share a bit with Mr. Scruff who loves chocolate as much as I do. (I’ve dried to convince him he’d prefer liverwurst, but he wants both.)

I got up to go out to the kitchen and heard suspicious noises. “What in the world is going on out there?” I asked.

I turned around to find a little white dog in the kitchen doorway holding aluminum foil wrapped chocolate and looking a bit abashed. He willingly gave up the chocolate we both prize and received freeze-dried liver in return.

Dogs will be dogs; I’ll have to be more careful and keep the chocolate well out of his reach.